So many tiny, fun character developments this episode, with an interesting-enough case in the middle to keep things moving! Alicia meets Daniel — obviously a love interest from the first bat of his luxurious lashes — at none other than jury duty. Her jury duty. That is, the only place she could actually meet a civilian. (He makes computer batteries or some such.) Nestor Carbonell, looking as ageless and sexy as he did on Lost, fits the bill well. She gets out of jury duty because, duh, and proceeds to have a rare day off — just enough empty time to truly contemplate her life. Meanwhile, Diane is grappling with yet another power struggle at what I guess we now have to call LG, thanks to the addition of Louis Canning, who’s at least as conniving as our old friend David Lee.
But first, let’s talk law.
The Silk Road to Nowhere
Finn is back in the saddle, prosecuting a wealthy LG client’s grandson for what initially appears to be a mere pot-related offense. Then it gets deeper: The kid’s been involved with a site called Silk Road, a very real site known as the “eBay for drugs†that the FBI shut down last year but has popped up again since. The kid received 65 bitcoin, or about 35 grand, from the site, which the DA traced. A security breach allowed law enforcement to track the previously anonymous internet currency, also a key development in the real case.
The kid, Robbie — played intriguingly ambiguous by Christopher Imbrosciano — also has cerebral palsy, an issue that didn’t seem to play much into the evening’s proceedings, but could as the case continues. The only real relevance it had at this point was when Diane tried to psych Finn out about going after a kid with CP while he’s running for State’s Attorney, especially since LG now has Louis Canning, whose disability “plays well on-camera.†Michael J. Fox’s morally shady depiction of a guy who’s also disabled always works so well on this, of all, shows — no one here is all good or bad, a key theme now as Saint Alicia unravels.
The case gives us standard Good Wife wit — Robbie invented a rating system for Silk Road’s drugs, the highest being “5 William S. Burroughs.†It gives us the show’s standard twists as well: The small-time drug dealer who turned Robbie in, Corsica, claims Robbie actually invented Silk Road, while Robbie claims he just told her that to impress her. The person who supposedly hired Robbie to write his reviews turns up dead, with pot bearing Corsica’s label at the crime scene. Robbie says he knew Corsica only because he helped her set up the cloud on her computer, which allows his lawyers to tap into Corsica’s cloud. Lo and behold, crime scene photos and an email ordering a hit on the Silk Road guy show up there. It seems all too neat, which, it is: A few spelling mistakes implicate Robbie — who uses voice-recognition software to type, and thus could mix up, say, “purchase†and “perches.†It seems like Robbie has set Corsica up, though we’ll have to find out next week — and without Diane, who’s taken herself off the case.
Diane vs. the World
One of the best parts of Alicia’s day off and Diane’s case against Finn is that we get to spend some much-overdue time with Diane. She’s firing assistants as fast and furious as ever, this time for passing clients’ calls onto David Lee and Louis Canning. David tries to make this into a confrontation over Diane’s faltering competency after Will’s death, though we’ve learned not to trust him. Diane’s not having it, so she calls Louis and David in for a meeting. “Are we being scolded?†David asks.
Kalinda, being Kalinda, knows that the two have met on eight separate occasions in the last two weeks outside of work. “We like each other,†David tries to explain. “You don’t like anyone, David,†Diane replies. Louis, intriguingly, accidentally calls Diane “Alicia†before explaining that he was doing estate planning with David. “What, are you two getting married?†Diane quips. No, Louis claims, he’s dying. None of us buy it for a second, including Diane. “I did,†she explains to Kalinda afterwards, “until he said, ‘I don’t want pity.’â€
So is he dying, or is he trying to screw Diane? Kalinda gives Diane the definitive answer I was expecting, but still love: “He is dying … and he’s trying to screw you.â€
Mother’s Day
Alicia tries, in a hilariously lengthy sequence, to watch a movie at home on her day off, only to find none of her fancy TV devices working properly. (Preach, sister.) She tries to get her laptop from the office, but Cary insists she really take the day off, no work allowed. So she gives up and goes to lunch with her crazy Stockard Channing mom. And though the two rarely agree on life philosophy, Alicia breaks down and confides in her mother, a touching moment given their history. She barely starts to admit that she’s not sure she wants to be a lawyer anymore, when her mom’s new boy toy, Logan, shows up.
The only reason that’s okay: It sends Alicia to the courthouse instead, pretending to have lost her wallet and … wouldn’t you know? She runs into Daniel, who’s on a lunch break from the case. They eat and flirt and fight over the check. She insists on paying, obviously worried that allowing anything else will send the wrong message. She pulls out her wallet. “I thought you lost your wallet,†he says. Her lame answer: “My other wallet.â€
Now he’s emboldened, but he obviously hasn’t worked on his pickup line — or maybe men as beautiful as he don’t ever work on their pickup lines — because when he asks her to meet him for a drink later and she demurs, he explains his pure, friendly intentions with: “I’d want to drink with you if you were a man or a chimpanzee.†Yeah, maybe don’t pull that one out again soon, Daniel.
Alicia frets about meeting him as she watches her weird crime show that afternoon, but luckily mom shows up to apologize, drink wine with her, and allow Alicia to confide in her this time. Already buzzed, Alicia rushes to her drinks date and sees poor, beautiful Daniel with two glasses of wine ready to go. How adorable/pathetic/presumptuous is that? “It’s one drink,†she says to herself, watching him from outside. “Why is that a problem?†Then she asks the real question: “Who am I being faithful to?†Tellingly, she walks away. At least for this week.